Hams in the Scheme of Things to Come

[WØTKX]

I've always thought if civilization has a downturn, Ham Radio folks could help it keep together. Like "The Postman". And many of us do have a pretty extensive library. Mine is mostly Science Fiction, the best of which does show a certain philosophy.

There have been some nights on 75 where a group gathers and we talk for hours about technical coolness and deeper forbidden subjects.

Unfortunately it gets QRM'd a lot. But I get it. As a participant of good nights on the Possum Net, Elite Hams (Art Bell and the Gang LOL), The Ol' Mike dudes on 20, etc... it does happen. Falls apart because of those "usual suspects" though.

The best foil for this is having an online real time chat (sometimes video) where we can hide out from shit storms.

As I get back on the air in the next few weeks/months, it would be fun to promote these discussions again. Best to stay cheeky about it all, IMHO.

[Jeff K1NSS]

I'll have to check those nets out. BTW, love the Franklin avatar. Been thinking lately about those Jack-of-All gentlemen of the Englightment and beyond, partly because I've just applied for a tour guide job at the Morse Mansion, Locust Grove http://www.lgny.org in Poughkeepsie NY. Hope my Morse fluency counts for something. Morse bought a Federal Style house and had it done over into this McTuscan villa , after he hit the telegraph jackpot. Well into adulthood, his ambition was to be a rock star painter, and while he made something of a mark after studying in London and Paris, his stuff was not a commercial success back home, which at the time involved displaying very large, dramatic canvases and charging admission. Like so many of his sort, Franklin with this Leyden jars, Jefferson with his folding chairs and pantographs, Morse tinkered with this and that on the side and got inspired by the French semaphore tower communications system while he was painting in France circa 1830s. He caught a break in the patent fight, and hit it big at last, albeit not as a painter. That Englightenment DIY ethos carried on, I think, in the technical self improvement boom in the trade unions through the industrial revolution and went thermonuclear as radio freaks began to bubble up in basements and attics,as the breadboard tsunami washed past Marconi and wasn't damped until the government/military/corporate Death Star put the clamp down in WWI. One of these centuries the individual will triumph, free will trumps all. Like the Modern Lovers' song says, Radio On!

[KG4NEL]

That'd be a pretty cool gig.

One of these centuries the individual will triumph, free will trumps all.

Although I think that's a little too optimistic

[ab1ga]

...
For the sake of discussion, let's filter out best we can politics, religion, economics, all the rhetorical angels and demons,
...
About those empowered individuals. Every new licensed ham is one of those. And if at some point, the FCC gets shed like a snakeskin, the brother and sisterhood would carry on, just like it did before the Federal Oligarchs muscled-in.

:) :) :)

[KJ3N]

"Things to Come"? What things are those, if you don't Mayan me asking?

[Jeff K1NSS]

"Things to Come"? What things are those, if you don't Mayan me asking?

You don't need to be a Weatherman or read the Popol Vuh know which way the breeze is blowin'.

The near future feels ominous as the intro to All Along The Watchtower. The potentials for world economic collapse and nuclear war in the Middle East seem higher by the day. Couple that with diminishing belief in central authority, be it government, media, corporate, religious, you name your Evil Doer, with all his ilk and inc., and we're looking at a shift, if not a landslide, to local, semi-autominous, do-it-ourselves. Sure, up to now, the drift has been in the opposite direction. Food, energy, medical care, commerce, public safety, every day brings another Triffid tendril of central control into the fabric of our lives. The system is large and complex and I'm not confident it could handle outside stress on the order of regional nuclear war and global depression. The end is near? No way. Clear away all the hand-wringing nonsense and this remains a country of strong, brave, resourceful individuals. And there's some new wrinkles in the social fabric, American as apple pie that will held bind us together as events conspire to rip us apart. As racism and sexism remain and boil up in modern grotesque ways, I think it's not Lincoln's 1865. Socially we do better. And when the going gets tough, we do best. If, at least for the purpose of discussion, you buy that premise, do you think the ham brother & sisterhood might engender a self-supporting, decentralized network? Yes, public safety would probably be part of that, but I'm thinking more of personal communication, that which we might want to share beyond the back yard fence. Text. Pictures. Video. Whatever we might still be able to share, given what remained at hand.

PS, Funny, I just remembered that The Old Man's "American Radio Relay League" was, essentially, an embryonic form of autonomous network. When I was a kid, I could never get my head around the need for "Traffic."

[Jeff K1NSS]

I think that's a little too optimistic [/COLOR]

Optimism is inherently too. ;)

[KC2UGV]

You don't need to be a Weatherman or read the Popol Vuh know which way the breeze is blowin'.

The near future feels ominous as the intro to All Along The Watchtower. The potentials for world economic collapse and nuclear war in the Middle East seem higher by the day. Couple that with diminishing belief in central authority, be it government, media, corporate, religious, you name your Evil Doer, with all his ilk and inc., and we're looking at a shift, if not a landslide, to local, semi-autominous, do-it-ourselves. Sure, up to now, the drift has been in the opposite direction. Food, energy, medical care, commerce, public safety, every day brings another Triffid tendril of central control into the fabric of our lives. The system is large and complex and I'm not confident it could handle outside stress on the order of regional nuclear war and global depression. The end is near? No way. Clear away all the hand-wringing nonsense and this remains a country of strong, brave, resourceful individuals. And there's some new wrinkles in the social fabric, American as apple pie that will held bind us together as events conspire to rip us apart. As racism and sexism remain and boil up in modern grotesque ways, I think it's not Lincoln's 1865. Socially we do better. And when the going gets tough, we do best. If, at least for the purpose of discussion, you buy that premise, do you think the ham brother & sisterhood might engender a self-supporting, decentralized network? Yes, public safety would probably be part of that, but I'm thinking more of personal communication, that which we might want to share beyond the back yard fence. Text. Pictures. Video. Whatever we might still be able to share, given what remained at hand.

PS, Funny, I just remembered that The Old Man's "American Radio Relay League" was, essentially, an embryonic form of autonomous network. When I was a kid, I could never get my head around the need for "Traffic."

I feel ya man.

We've never had a situation before in this nation, where one citizen took up arms against another EVAR!

And, dear god! War in the Middle East! Never has that been seen before in ALL of history...

On the central control thing... Well, the more power tries to consolidate, the harder it becomes to maintain. It's basic systems theory.

[Jeff K1NSS]

We've never had a situation before in this nation, where one citizen took up arms against another EVAR!

And, dear god! War in the Middle East! Never has that been seen before in ALL of history...

On the central control thing... Well, the more power tries to consolidate, the harder it becomes to maintain. It's basic systems theory.

Absolutely. There's no new bad news under the sun. History may not repeat itself, but it has a definite stutter. My rumination is not about the end of the world or who's to blame for this hell of a fix. Just asking how, if needed, hams might hack past and present to homebrew an alternate internet -- a wireless iMancipated IndyWeb so to speak -- fractionally hosted by its users, everywhere and all but nowhere. Could such a thing be done and defended? Yes, I'm talking through Major Amos Hoople's fez. Will gladly entertain informed dismissals or details sweated amongst yourselves.

I'm an appliance operator who never built anything more than an Ocean Hopper kit and a bunch of little oscillators, amplifiers and simple receivers from scavanged parts. Many of my ham friends have done and do much more. Most all of us, regardless of technical ability or operating prowess, carry on the tradition in great and small ways. Look past the DX pile ups and ten thousand dollar radios, the whackermobiles and all that silly stuff other hams do that we don't. There's a civilized gee-whiz core to our hobby that attracted me in the first place, long before I could begin to explain its appeal. Joining up was like becoming a Junior Faraday, Ohm, Ampere, Henry, part of something that went back centuries and led into, at the time, lower Earth orbit. That's still exciting to me, and might well be sustaining, in a stealthy way, for one and all.

[KC2UGV]

Absolutely. There's no new bad news under the sun. History may not repeat itself, but it has a definite stutter. My rumination is not about the end of the world or who's to blame for this hell of a fix. Just asking how, if needed, hams might hack past and present to homebrew an alternate internet -- a wireless iMancipated IndyWeb so to speak -- fractionally hosted by its users, everywhere and all but nowhere. Could such a thing be done and defended? Yes, I'm talking through Major Amos Hoople's fez. Will gladly entertain informed dismissals or details sweated amongst yourselves.
...

HSMM.

The short answer: Sure we can. The long answer? Hams are so cliquish to begin with, most can't even collaborate enough to keep a repeater on the air past the lifetime of the equipment owner.

But, the bright spot? If you check out the Freeswitch and Asterisk dev channels on IRC, a shocking revelation will be seen: Many are hams. And, if you look at the MeshPotato project, lo and behold, the coordinator is a Ham!

There are bright spots. Hams need to actually standardize, standardize, standardize.

Case in point: I don't care what the standard is for packet radio (TCP/IP over RF, AX25, HSSM, etc etc etc). Let's just DO IT. I'm taking the lead (Once these god forsaken scumbag sellers pull their heads from their fourth point of contact) here, and setting up the beginnings of two mesh networks: Ham mesh, and Part 15 mesh.